Society's Child
Elsie Duckers, who was five days old at the time and weighed just 6lbs 12oz, was tucked up in her carriage when she was approached by a man who overheard friends say: "Come and have a look at this beautiful baby."
The man then punched the newborn in the head. He claimed he thought the baby was not real and was a toy. The baby was rushed to Wythenshawe Hospital where she was held for seven hours. She is not thought to have suffered any serious injuries.
Her mother Amy Duckers, 27, said the punch was so hard, "you could hear the connection as this man hit Elsie."
The activist, Darren Seals, 29, was found inside the vehicle on Diamond Drive in Riverview in St. Louis County around 1:50 a.m., the St. Louis County Police Department said in a statement. The vehicle had been on fire and he was found after the flames were extinguished.
The helicopter was providing air support to the police force operating in the area hardly accessible by land. The officers were on a mission to arrest gang leaders in the city notorious for its thriving drug cartels.
"During the operation, an official helicopter which was supporting the patrol in area of difficult access was shot down," wrote Silvano Aureoles, governor of the state of Michoacan. Apatzingan is located in the western part of Michoacan.
The company said the closure is due to an investigation and sanctions by the U.S. Department of Education.
"It is with profound regret that we must report that ITT Educational Services, Inc. will discontinue academic operations at all of its ITT Technical Institutes permanently after approximately 50 years of continuous service," the company stated Tuesday. "Effective today, the company has eliminated the positions of the overwhelming majority of our more than 8,000 employees."
As previously reported, ITT Tech stopped enrolling new students on August 29, just a few days after it was cut off from a significant amount of federal funding by the government. ITT's collapse was catalyzed when the Department of Education effectively killed the company two weeks ago, when it told the company on August 25 that it couldn't enroll new students who use federal financial aid. The school accused federal officials of forcing the closure and denying it due process. The company has been the subject of state and federal probes for various reasons, including its recruitment tactics, lending practices and job placement figures.
Almost exactly a year after my previous visit to Greece, urgent business obliged me to return there for a flying visit at the end of August.
In August 2015, when I was last there, Greeks were still trying to come to terms with the Tsipras government's abrupt capitulation to the EU's terms for the country's third bailout. These terms were actually harsher than those originally offered, which the Greek people had rejected in a referendum just a few weeks before.
The Tsipras government's abrupt reversal of position, accepting even harsher terms than those it and the Greek people had previously rejected, left many Greeks confused. I repeatedly heard confident claims that in return for accepting the EU's terms Tsipras "must have" obtained private assurances of a haircut on Greece's debt, which for "political reasons" could not be announced publicly.
The size of this market is larger than you may imagine. Earlier this year, the auto loan bubble surpassed the one trillion dollar mark for the first time ever...
The average size of an auto loan is also at a record high. At $29,880, it is now just a shade under $30,000.Americans are borrowing more than ever for new and used vehicles, and 30- and 60-day delinquency rates rose in the second quarter, according to the automotive arm of one of the nation's largest credit bureaus.
The total balance of all outstanding auto loans reached $1.027 trillion between April 1 and June 30, the second consecutive quarter that it surpassed the $1-trillion mark, reports Experian Automotive.
In order to try to help people afford the payments, auto lenders are now stretching loans out for six or even seven years. At this point it is almost like getting a mortgage.
But even with those stretched out loans, the average monthly auto loan payment is now up to a record 499 dollars.
That is the average loan size. To me, this is absolutely infuriating, because only a very small percentage of wealthy Americans are able to afford a $499 monthly payment on a single vehicle.
Many middle class American families are only bringing in three or four thousand dollars a month (before taxes). How in the world do they think that they can afford a five hundred dollar monthly auto loan payment on just one vehicle?
The Des Moines Register reviewed cases in the state over this period where teachers were convicted of sex crimes involving students to see if their sentences were in line with the law prohibiting probation in exactly these circumstances.
However, remarks by judges and prosecutors involved in the some of the cases appear to suggest that they are ignorant of the law they are required to uphold and enforce.
All of the cases examined during the review involved victims under 18 years old.
If asked what's intrinsic to human happiness, most people in consumer societies will offer up answers such as money, status, a nice house, etc. But as Sebastian Junger observes in his book Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging, what's actually intrinsic to human happiness is: meaningful relationships within a community (i.e. a tribe); opportunities to contribute to the group and to be appreciated; being competent at useful tasks and opportunities for authentic experiences.
If we assess our society by these standards, it is impoverished and ill. In the present-day economy, there are only two ways to contribute: 1) earn a profit for some entity in the private sector, usually a large corporation, and 2) perform some task for the state (government) that lives off the wages and profits of the private sector.
If you can't generate a profit or satisfy the state, you're tossed on the trash heap and offered disability, minimum guaranteed income or some other form of subsistence survival.
There will be no homework.
Kelly Elementary School in Holyoke has banned homework for the year with the intention of giving students all the instruction and extra help they may need during the school day, ABC reported.
"We want kids to go home tired; we want their brains to be tired," Jackie Glasheen, principal of the school, whose kindergarten through 8th-grade students are nearly all poor and Hispanic, told ABC News. At home, she said, "we want them to engage with their families, talk about their school days and go to bed."
Glasheen and the team of teachers who came up with the idea to end homework are among a growing number of U.S. educators and parents questioning the value of having children do schoolwork at home.
A Texas elementary school teacher last month drew wide attention by eliminating homework.
Comment: What these children are learning in most public schools can be summed up by this statement by John D. Rockerfeller:
"I want a nation of workers, not thinkers."See also:
- The results are clear: Homework is damaging to young kids and should be banned until High School
- Public education and hystericized society: For children in the U.S., school is the first indoctrination into the American police state
- Michigan Court of Appeal rules state has no responsibility to provide quality public education
The country's State Secretariat for Migration (SEM) confirmed that within the last quarter some 20 to 40 percent of refugees who have been assigned to reception centers have vanished from the monitoring system completely, Swiss newspaper Sonntags Zeitung reports.
The migration authority, however, did not provide exact figures for each reception center.
Most of those who disappeared from Swiss reception centers have most likely traveled further into Europe, heading for Germany, SEM spokeswoman Chloe Kohlprath told ATS news agency, as cited by news outlet
The migration authority, however, did not provide exact figures for each reception center.
Most of those who disappeared from Swiss reception centers have most likely traveled further into Europe, heading for Germany, SEM spokeswoman Chloe Kohlprath told ATS news agency, as cited by news outlet 20 Minuten.
Under Swiss legislation, refugees may only enter the country if they apply for asylum. Anyone with no intention of staying in Switzerland is refused entry, and those who do are sent to SEM reception centers while their asylum applications are processed.















Comment: From The Root: UPDATE: Activists point fingers at police over suspicious death of Ferguson protester Darren Seals